Drought and its management

Drought and its
management
Welcome to the department of agronomy
Submitted to :
Mounika madam
Departement of agronomy
Ageicultural college , NAIRA
Agricultural college , NAIRA

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O R G A N I C S C O M P A N Y
Introduction
Low rainfall or failure of monsoon rain is a recurring feature in India. This has been responsible for droughts
and famines. The word drought generally denotes scarcity of water in a region. Though, aridity and drought
are due to insufficient water, aridity is a permanent climatic feature and is the culmination of a number of
long term processes. However, drought is a temporary condition that occurs for a short period due to
deficient precipitation for vegetation, river flow, water supply and human consumption. Drought is due to
anomaly in atmospheric circulation.
AridityVs. Drought
Particulars Aridity Drought
Duration Permanent feature Temporary condition of
scarcity of varying duration
Factors Culmination of many long term
processes , considers all climatic
features
Caused by deficient rainfall
Aspect described Description of Climate Description ofWater
availability

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Definition of drought
There is no universally accepted definition for drought.
a) Early workers defined drought as prolonged period without rainfall.
b) According to Ramdas (1960) drought is a situation when the actual seasonal rainfall is deficient by more
than twice the mean deviation.
c) American Meteorological Society defined drought as a period of abnormally dry weather sufficiently
prolonged for lack of water to cause a severe hydrological imbalance in the area affected.
d) Prolonged deficiencies of soil moisture adversely affect crop growth indicating incidence of agricultural
drought. It is the result of imbalance between soil moisture and evapo-transpiration needs of an area over a
fairly long period so as to cause damage to standing crops and to reduce the yields.
e)The irrigation commission of India defines drought as a situation occurring in any
area where the annual rainfall is less than 75% of normal rainfall.

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Classification of drought
Drought can be classified based on duration, nature of users, time of occurrence and using some specific
terms.
Based on duration
a.Permanent drought:This is characteristic of the desert climate where sparse vegetation growing
is adapted to drought and agriculture is possible only by irrigation during entire crop season.
b. Seasonal drought: This is found in climates with well defined rainy and dry seasons. Most of the arid and
semiarid zones fall in this category. Duration of the crop varieties and planting dates should be such that
the growing season should fall within rainy season.
c. Contingent drought: This involves an abnormal failure of rainfall. It may occur almost anywhere
especially in most parts of humid or sub humid climates. It is usually brief, irregular and generally affects
only a small area.
d. Invisible drought: This can occur even when there is frequent rain in an area. When rainfall is inadequate
to meet the evapo-transpiration losses, the result is borderline water deficiency in soil resulting in less than
optimum yield.This occurs usually in humid regions.

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Based on relevance to the users (National Commission on Agriculture, 1976)
a) Meteorological drought: It is defined as a condition, where the annual precipitation is less than the normal over an
area for prolonged period (month, season or year).
b) Atmospheric drought: It is due to low air humidity, frequently accompanied by hot dry winds. It may occur even under
conditions of adequate available soil moisture. It refers to a condition when plants show wilting symptoms during the hot
part of the day when transpiration exceeds absorption temporarily for a short period. When absorption keeps pace with
transpiration the plants revive. (Mid day wilt).
c) Hydrological drought: Meteorological drought, when prolonged results in hydrological drought with depletion of
surface water and consequent drying of reservoirs, tanks etc. It results in deficiency of water for all sectors using water.
This is based on water balance and how it affects irrigation as a whole for bringing crops to maturity.
d) Agricultural drought (soil drought): It is the result of soil moisture stress due to imbalance between available soil
moisture and evapotranspiration of a crop. It is usually gradual and progressive. Plants can therefore, adjust at least
partly, to the increased soil moisture stress. This situation arises as a consequence of scanty precipitation or its uneven
distribution both in space and time. Relevant definition of agricultural drought appears to be a period of dryness during
the crop season, sufficiently prolonged to adversely affect the yield. The extent of yield loss depends on the crop growth
stage and the degree of stress. It does not begin when the rain ceases, but actually commences only when the plant
roots are not able to obtain the soil moisture rapidly enough to replace evapotranspiration losses.

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Based on time of occurrence
a) Early season drought: It occurs due to delay in onset of monsoon or due to long dry spells after early
sowing.
b) Mid season drought: Occurs due to long gaps between two successive rains and stored moisture
becoming insufficient during the long dry spell.
c) Late season drought: Occurs due to early cessation of rainfall and crop water stress at maturity stage.
Other terms to describe drought
a) Relative drought: The drought for one crop may not be a drought situation for another crop. This is due
to mismatch between soil moisture condition and crop selection. For Eg. A condition may be a drought
situation for growing rice, but the same situation may not be a drought for growing groundnut.
b) Physiological drought: Refers to a condition where crops are unable to absorb water from soil even
when water is available, due to the high osmotic pressure of soil solution due to increased soil
concentration, as in saline and alkaline soils. It is not due to deficit of water supply.

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Important causes for agricultural drought are
• Inadequate precipitation
• Erratic distribution
• Long dry spells in the monsoon
• Late onset of monsoon
• Early withdrawal of monsoon
• Lack of proper soil and crop management
Periodicity of drought : The Indian Meteorological Department examined the incidence of drought for the period from
1871 to 1967, utilizing the monthly rainfall of 306 stations in the country. It was seen that during 1877, 1899, 1918 and
1972 more than 40 per cent of the total area experienced drought. General observation on the periodicity of drought
in respect of different meteorological sub divisions of India is given below.
Meteorological sub divisions Period of recurrence of drought
Assam
Assam Very rare, once in 15 years
West Bengal, MP, Konkan, Coastal AP, Kerala, Bihar, Orissa Once in 5 years
South interior Karnataka, Eastern UP, Gujarat, Vidharbha, Rajasthan,
Western UP,TN, Kashmir, Rayalaseema andTelangana
Once in 3 years
Western Rajasthan Once in 2.5 years

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Effect of drought on crop production
a)Water relations: Alters the water status by its influence on absorption, translocation and transpiration.
The lag in absorption behind transpiration results in loss of turgor as a result of increase in the
atmospheric dryness.
b) Photosynthesis: Photosynthesis is reduced by moisture stress due to reduction in Photosynthetic rate,
chlorophyll content, leaf area and increase in assimilates saturation in leaves (due to lack of translocation).
c) Respiration: Increase with mild drought but more serve drought lowers water content and respiration.
d) Anatomical changes: Decrease in size of the cells and inter cellular spaces, thicker cell wall , greater
development of mechanical tissue. Stomata per unit leaf tend to increase.
e) Metabolic reaction: All most all metabolic reactions are affected by water deficits.
f) Hormonal Relationships: The activity of growth promoting hormones like cytokinin, gibberlic acid and
indole acetic acid decreases and growth regulating hormone like abscisic acid, ethylene, etc., increases.
g) Nutrition: The fixation, uptake and assimilation of nitrogen is affected. Since dry matter production is
considerably reduced the uptake of NPK is reduced.

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h) Growth and Development: Decrease in growth of leaves, stems and fruits. Maturity is delayed if drought
occursbefore flowering while it advances if drought occurs after flowering.
i) Reproduction and grain growth: Drought at flowering and grain development determines the number of fruits and
individual grain weight, respectively. Panicle initiation in cereals is critical while drought at anthesis may lead to
drying of pollen. Drought at grain development reduces yield while vegetative and grain filling stages are less
sensitive to moisture stress.
j) Yield: The effect on yield depends hugely on what proportion of the total dry matter is considered as useful material
to be harvested. If it is aerial and underground parts, effect of drought is as sensitive as total growth.When the yield
consists of seeds as in cereals, moisture stress at flowering is detrimental. When the yield is fibre or chemicals where
economic product is a small fraction of total dry matter moderate stress on growth does not have adverse effect on
yields.
Crop Adaptations
The ability of crop to grow satisfactorily under water stress is called drought adaptation. Adaptation is structural or
functional modification in plants to survive and reproduce in a particular environment. Crops survive and grow under
moisture stress conditions mainly by two ways:
(i) escaping drought and
(ii) drought resistance

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Escaping Drought
Evading the period of drought is the simplest means of adaptation of plants to dry conditions. Many desert
plants, the so called ephemerals, germinate at the beginning of the rainy season and have an extremely
short life period (5 to 6 weeks) which is confined to the rainy period. These plants have no mechanism for
overcoming moisture stress and are, therefore, not drought resistant.
Germination inhibitors serve as safety mechanism. In cultivated
crops, the ability of a cultivar to mature before the soil dries is the main adaptation to growth in dry regions.
However, only very few crops have such a short growing season to be called as ephemerals. Certain
varieties of pearl millet mature within 60 days after sowing.
Short duration pulses like cowpea, greengram, blackgram can be
included in this category. In addition to earliness, they need drought resistance because there may be dry
spells within the crop period of 60 Adaptations to moisture stress Escaping drought Drought Resistance
Drought avoidance Drought tolerance Mitigating Stress Conserving water High tolerance (Water savers)
Improving water uptake (Water Spenders) days. The disadvantage about breeding early varieties is that
yield is reduced with reduction in duration.

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Drought Resistance : Plants can adopt to drought either by avoiding stress or by tolerating stress due to different
mechanisms.These mechanisms provide drought resistance.
Avoiding Stress : Stress avoidance is the ability to maintain a favourable water balance, and turgidity even when
exposed to drought conditions, thereby avoiding stress and its consequences. A favourable water balance under
drought conditions can be achieved either by:
(i) conserving water by restricting transpiration before or as soon as stress is experienced; or
(ii) accelerating water uptake sufficiently so as to replenish the lost water.
Strategies for drought management :
The different strategies for drought management are discussed under the following heads.
Adjusting the plant population: The plant population should be lesser in dryland conditions than under irrigated
conditions. The rectangular type of planting pattern should always be followed under dryland conditions. Under dryland
conditions whenever moisture stress occurs due to prolonged dry spells, under limited moisture supply the adjustment
of plant population can be done by
a) Increasing the inter row distance: By adjusting more number of plants within the row and increasing the distance
between the rows reduces the competition during any part of the growing period of the crop. Hence it is more suitable
for limited moisture supply conditions.
b) Increasing the intra row distance: Here the distance between plants is increased by which plants grow luxuriantly
from the beginning.There will be competition for moisture during the reproductive period of the crop. Hence it is less
advantageous as compared to above under limited moisture supply.

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Mid season corrections: The contingent management practices done in the standing crop to overcome the
unfavourable soil moisture conditions due to prolonged dry spells are known as mid season conditions.
a) Thinning: This ca be done by removing every alternate row or every third row which will save the crop from failure by
reducing the competition.
b) Spraying: In crops like groundnut, castor, redgram, etc., during prolonged dry spells the crop can saved by spraying
water at weekly intervals or 2 per cent urea at week to 10 days interval.
c) Ratooning: In crops like sorghum and bajra, ratooning can practiced as mid
season correction measure after break of dry spell.
Mulching: It is a practice of spreading any covering material on soil surface to reduce evaporation losses. The mulches
will prolong the moisture availability in the soil and save the crop during drought conditions.
Weed control: Weeds compete with crop for different growth resources ore seriously under dryland conditions. The
water requirement of most of the weeds is more than the crop plants. Hence they compete more for soil moisture.
Therefore the weed control especially during early stages of crop growth reduce the impact of dry spell by soil moisture
conservation.
Water harvesting and life saving irrigation: The collection of run off water during peak periods of rainfall and storing
in different structures is known as water harvesting. The stored water can be used for giving the life saving irrigation
during prolonged dry spells.

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Impact of Droughts in India: Physical; Agriculture and Economic Impact :
Droughts have a wide range of effects on the masses in a developing country
like India. The impact of droughts is specifically conspicuous in view of the tropical monsoon character
of the country. Rainfall by the south-west monsoon is notorious for its vagaries.
(i) Physical Impact:
Meteorological drought adversely affects the recharge of soil moisture,
surface runoff and ground water table. Soils dry up, surface runoff is reduced and ground water level is
lowered. Rivers, lakes, ponds and reservoirs tend to dry up wells and tube-wells are rendered
unserviceable due to lowering of the ground water table.
(ii) Impact on Agriculture:
Indian agriculture still largely depends upon monsoon rainfall where about
two-thirds of the arable land lack irrigation facilities and is termed as rainfed. The effect is manifested in
the shortfalls of agricultural production in drought years. History is replete with examples of serious
shortfall in cultivated areas and drop in agricultural productivity.

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Severe shortage of food-grains had been felt and the country had to resort to import of food-grains to save
the poor people from hunger and starvation. However, India has been able to build a buffer stock of food–
grains and threat from droughts is not as serious as it used to be before the Green Revolution.
It is worth mentioning here that the shortfall in agricultural
production may be the direct impact of meteorological droughts but the succeeding hydrological and
agricultural droughts have a long range and far reaching impact on agriculture. This impact may be in the
form of changes in the cropping patterns and impoverishment in cattle.
(iii) Social and Economic Impact:
Social and economic impact of a drought is more severe than the
physical and agricultural impacts. A drought is almost invariably associated with famine which has its own
social and economic consequences.
The impact of drought manifests itself in the following sequence:
1. Decline in cultivated area and fall in agricultural production (including crops and milk).
2. Fall in employment in agricultural sector.
3. Fall in purchasing power.
4. Scarcity of drinking water, food-grains and fodder.

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5. Rise in inflation rate.
6. Distress sale of cattle and loss of cattle life.
7. Low intake of food and widespread malnutrition.
8. Ill health and spread of diseases like diarrhoea, dysentery, cholera and opthalmia caused by
malnutrition, hunger and starvation.
9. Distress sale and mortgage of land, jewellery and personal property.
10. Migration of people from drought hit areas to other areas in search of livelihood and food.
11. Death due to malnutrition/starvation/diseases
12. Slowing down of secondary and tertiary activities due to fall in agricultural production and decline in
purchasing power.
13. Low morale of the people.

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14. Social stress and tension, disruption of social institutions and increase in social crime.
15. Growth of fatalism and belief in supernatural powers and superstitions.
The greatest impact of a drought is seen on the weaker sections of society. These include landless labourers, small
marginal farmers and artisans like weavers. Such people live in hand to mouth economy and do not have enough stock
to sustain in the event of a drought.
Whatever little stock they have, it is quickly exhausted and they are compelled to go in for distress sale or mortgage
their belongings to rich landlords. Thus whereas a drought situation brings miseries and sufferings for the poor people,
the rich people take undue advantage of the situation and exploit the poor people.
 Often the poor becomes poorer and the rich becomes richer in a drought situation. A series of bad harvest plunges
the small and marginal farmers in a vicious circle of poverty making them landless and penniless.
The money-lender charges high rate of interest and the inability of the farmer to repay the loan compells them to
forfeit their mortgaged property. In extreme cases, the farmers tend to commit suicide. Cases of suicide by farmers in
Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Orissa, Maharashtra and even in agriculturally rich states of Punjab and Haryana have
been reported from time to time.

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DROUGHT STATISTICS IN INDIA :
About 42% of India’s land area is facing drought, with 6% exceptionally dry--four times the spatial
extent of drought last year, according to data for the week ending March 26, 2019, from the Drought
EarlyWarning System (DEWS), a real-time drought monitoring platform.
Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Maharashtra, parts of the North-East,
Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Telangana are the worst hit. These states are home to 500 million people,
almost 40% of the country’s population.
While the central government has not declared drought anywhere so far, the state governments of
Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Odisha and Rajasthan have declared many of their
districts as drought-hit.
“Before monsoon, which is still far away, the next two or three months are going to be difficult in many
of these regions,” Vimal Mishra, associate professor at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT),
Gandhinagar, and the developer of DEWS, told IndiaSpend.

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Failed monsoon rains are the primary reason for the current situation. The North-East monsoon, also known as
‘post-monsoon rainfall’ (October-December) that provides 10-20% of India’s rainfall, was deficient by 44% in 2018
from the long-term normal of 127.2 mm, as per data from the India Meteorological Department (IMD). This
compounded the rainfall deficit in the South-West (SW) monsoon (June-September) that provides 80% of India’s
rainfall, which fell short by 9.4% in 2018--close to the 10% deficit range when the IMD declares a drought.
India has experienced widespread drought every year since 2015, Mishra said, with the exception of 2017. As the El
Nino--the unusual warming of the equatorial Pacific Ocean that makes Indian summers warmer and reduces rainfall--
looms over the 2019 SW monsoon, pre-monsoon showers (March-May) this year have also been deficient. India has
received 36% less rainfall than the long-term average between March 1 and March 28, 2019, as per IMD data. The
southern peninsular region recorded the lowest, a deficit greater than 60%.
Lower rainfall has reduced water levels in reservoirs across the country. The amount of water available in the
country’s 91 major reservoirs has gone down 32 percentage points over five months to March 22, 2019. In 31
reservoirs of southern states, water level has gone down by 36 percentage points over five months.
The drought could further worsen farm distress, exacerbate groundwater extraction, increase migration from rural
to urban areas, and further inflame water conflicts between states and between farms, cities and industries.

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Drought-Prone Districts Of India

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Drought in india ( 1876 to 1990 )
Year Geographical Area Affected by Drought Intensity of Drought Ranking (on The basis of
Column (3)
(1) Million Hectares
(2)
% to total Area
(3)
(4) (5)
1876
1877
1883
1884
1885
1891
1896
1899
1901
1902
1904
1905
1907
1911
1913
1915
1918
1920
1925
1928
1936
1941
1951
1952
49
203
103
70
48
115
68
199
89
54
98
109
85
97
70
63
216
122
80
67
86
101
104
81
15.8
64.7
32.8
22.2
15.4
36.7
21.7
63.4
28.5
17.1
33.1
34.7
27.2
30.8
22.3
20.2
68.7
38.6
25.5
21.4
27.6
12.3
31.6
24.6
Moderate
Calamitous
Near severe
Moderate
Moderate
Near severe
Moderate
Calamitous
Near severe
Moderate
Near severe
Slight
Near severe
Moderate
Moderate
Calamitous
Near severe
Moderate
Moderate
Moderate
Near severe
Near severe
Moderate
Moderate
33
2
11
25
34
9
27
3
19
32
15
10
22
16
26
29
1
7
23
28
21
12
13
24

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(1) Million Hectares
(2)
% to total Area
(3)
(4) (5)
1965
1966
1968
1969
1971
1972
1974
1979
1982
1985
1986
1987
135
101
45
62
42
139
92
124
104
95
60
155
41.1
30.7
13.7
18.9
12.8
42.3
28.0
37.7
31.6
28.9
18.3
47.2
Severe
Near Severe
Moderate
Moderate
Moderate
Severe
Near severe
Near severe
Near severe
Near severe
Moderate
Severe
6
17
35
30
36
5
20
8
14
18
31
4

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Drought statistics in Andhrapradesh :
•Droughts are a fact of life in Rayalaseema, the arid western region of Andhra Pradesh comprising the
four districts of Kurnool, Anantapur, YSR Kadapa and Chittoor. Between 2000 and 2018, the region has
seen 15 drought years, the last nine consecutive, according to data from the office of the
Commissioner for Disaster Management published in the Agriculture Statistics Report 2017-’18.
•Coming after consecutive drought years, 2018 brought the worst drought in 20 years. The state
government declared 347 mandals, or blocks, drought-affected in nine of 13 districts. Further, the
entire state received 32% deficient rainfall between June 2018 and April 2019, affecting the main kharif
and rabi crops.
•Today, agriculture holds no hope for small or big farmers in western Andhra Pradesh. Recurring
droughts and the absence of alternative employment have forced lakhs of small, marginal and landless
farmers, mostly from the Scheduled Castes, ScheduledTribes and Backward Castes, to migrate in the
post-kharif period, around Dussehra in October every year.They go in search of daily wage jobs in
agriculture or construction, both within and outside the state.

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•In 2018, about 7,00,000 farmers migrated from Anantapur and Kurnool districts Drought has
impacted close to 3.2 million farmers since 2014, resulting in losses of up to Rs 3,216 crore – money
that could have been used to irrigate well over 40,192 hectares of land – The Hindu reported.
Drought damaged 5,50,000 hectares of farmland and affected 1.6 million small and marginal
farmers between 2018 and 2019, according to a press release from the Chief Minister’s Office.
•The cost of digging borewells and high pesticide prices are also pushing farmers into debt: 77% of
Andhra’s rural agricultural households are in debt, the second highest in the country after
Telangana (79%), and higher than the national average of 52.5%, according to the latest data
published by National Bank ofAgriculture and Rural Development.
•Successive droughts have also brought drinking water shortage, hunger, child labour and sex
trafficking of migrant workers.

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A land of contrasts:
•The Rayalaseema region Pradesh is a study in contrasts, with uneven irrigation and water facilities
even within the same district. For instance, 37.35% of the total area is irrigated by canals in Kurnool
district. However, canal irrigation is concentrated in the eastern region while the western regions are
parched and have few irrigation facilities.
•In Kadapa, the southern region of Rayachoti and Rajampeta are similarly devoid of water while
other regions are irrigated. Similarly, 27.43% of the farmland in Prakasam district is irrigated by
canals, which are concentrated in the eastern region, leaving the western part dependent on rainfed
agriculture.
No sowing in Anantapur
•Prakasam, the worst-affected district, received 58% deficient rainfall between June 2018 and April
2019. For the sixth consecutive year, all 63 mandals in Anantapur district, where 64.4% of land area is
desertified, have been declared drought-hit. The state government sought Rs 1,401 crore from the
Centre, of which Rs 900 crore was released for drought mitigation in January 2019.

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•Rainfall has been increasingly erratic across Andhra over a prolonged period, with increasing dry
spells (seven consecutive days without rain), according to a hydrogeologist in Prakasam who did not
wish to be named. Anantapur has witnessed dry spells lasting 10-45 days in the last 25 years, severely
affecting the yield of groundnut, the district’s main cash crop. Most of Andhra, except the canal-
irrigated districts of Krishna, Guntur, East Godavari and West Godavari, depends on rainfed
agriculture.
•For the first time in 140 years, a large majority of farmers did not sow anything at all last year in
Anantapur,” said YV Mallareddy, director of Accion Fraterna Ecology Center, an NGO based in
Anantapur. He has been studying drought patterns in the Rayalaseema region.
•Dry spells are not the only problem, rains when they arrive are more intense now –up to 40 mm a day
– eroding the soil.

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The state’s drought response has evolved over the years – from employment generation during
droughts through the Food forWork programme in the 1960s to watershed programmes in the 1990s
that involved building assets for water conservation and groundwater recharge through the Drought
ProneAreas Programme.
An evaluation of the Andhra Pradesh Drought Adaptation Initiative, a collaborative pilot project
between the World Bank and the state government, carried out in two districts of undivided Andhra
Pradesh in 2006, found that new thinking and a participatory approach were needed to build long-
term climate resilience.This would include income diversification, establishment of buffers of food
grain, and participatory management of groundwater.

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Thank you
Presented by :
1)G.Dhananjay NA-2017-013
2)CH.Eshwar prasad NA-2017-014
3)R.Gayathri NA-2017-015

Drought and its management

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